Perl programs are written using plain text files, so at a minimum all you need a basic text editor (e.g. Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on OS X). If you are new to Perl then the best combination are a text editor and a command window to run the Perl interpreter as IDE's can make life a little complicated when you first start.

Some more powerful development tools are listed below, roughly grouped as:

• Integrated Development Environment (IDE) - features perl syntax highlighting, integrated debugging support, and other advanced features

• Text Editor - at a minimum features perl syntax highlighting. Other IDE-like features may be possible through additional plugins/extensions.

• Helper Tools - applications such as GUI builders and reference documentation that may be used in conjunction with IDEs and editors.

Predominantly commercial programs are noted with $, although in some cases their licences may have exceptions for personal, educational, or government use.

Note: A listing here does not imply any endorsement or that a review has taken place. (Independent reviews welcome!)

• See also Google > Computers > Programming > Languages > Perl > Tools

• Eclipse IDE with the EPIC plugin. Some hints at Perl Monks

• Geany has Perl support

• Padre - under heavy development.

• $ Activestate Komodo

• $ IndigoSTAR PerlEdit .. Windows and Linux

• Open Perl IDE.

• Perl Express.

• $ DzSoft Perl Editor

• $ EngInSite Perl Editor.

• $ Perl Scripting Tool

• $ PerlWiz.

• $ Solution Soft Perl Builder.

• $ Late Night Software Affrus

• $ EPIC EPIC

• Emacs, GNU Emacs for MS Windows, Emacs for OS X .. for perl-specific support read up on cperl-mode (or for Emacs prior to 21.2 perl-mode)

• jEdit

• Kephra is written in Perl

• VIM, Vim for Windows, VIM for OS X (Carbon) and MacVim (Cocoa). VIM includes perl syntax highlighting, but there are also numerous extensions that enable more IDE-like features such as debugging, tags, and sanity checks

• ActiveState Komodo Edit is an Open Source editor that supports Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl, plus JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and XML, and template languages like RHTML, Template-Toolkit, HTML-Smarty and Django

• $ Rocket editor has Perl support

See also Google > Computers > Software > Editors

• Perl Code Editor

• Notepad++ with Perl mode

• SciTE - A free source code editor for Win32 and X

• Crimson editor, includes syntax support for Perl

• Geany free editor, includes syntax support for Perl and others

• $ EditPlus

• $ TextPad

• $ UltraEdit

• Smultron

• Bare Bones Software’s TextWrangler

• $ Bare Bones Software’s $ BBEdit

• $ TheCodingMonkeys’ SubEthaEdit

• $ Macromates’ TextMate

• SWIG is a software development tool that connects programs written in C and C++ with a variety of high-level programming languages. SWIG is used with different types of languages including common scripting languages such as Perl

• Perl::Critic critiques Perl source code for best-practices. There is a gentle introduction

• Perltidy code formatter. The recommendations from Conway's Perl Best Practices may be downloaded and there is a front end tool to help configure your own preferences. There is also an introduction

• Devel::REPL Interactive Perl shell. Read Execute Print Loop shell (run re.pl from terminal prompt), as pioneered by Lisp. Handy tip, add "use v5.10.1" to the ~/re.pl/repl.rc file and use say $x instead of print "$x\n"

• DBI::shell Interactive shell for DBI RDBMS layer

• Module::Starter::PBP Create a module as recommended in "Perl Best Practices"

• The GUI Loft: a WYSIWYG design tool (written in Perl) for designing Perl Win32::GUI windows.

• Perl Oasis: a POD/source/class browser tightly integrated with (currently) UltraEdit, gVim, EditPlus, and PFE (Programmer's File Editor).

• Regex Coach is a graphical application for Windows which can be used to interactively experiment with (Perl-compatible) regular expressions.

• Camel Bones: an Objective-C/Perl bridge lets you integrate perl code with your Cocoa / Xcode development projects (e.g. use the Apple developer tools to build user interfaces, and write the application code in perl!). Also includes an example app, ShuX, which is a perldoc browser.

• PerlPad: allows you to run perl code from the Services menu available in most OS X applications ; can also convert perl snippets into keyboard shortcuts

• Platypus: a tool for creating application wrappers around scripts (e.g. create Mac OS X applications that execute a bundled perl script).

• Pashua: a tool for generating native Aqua dialog windows from within perl (and other supported scripting languages). Data from the dialog can be passed on to the calling script; works well in conjunction with Platypus to create a simple application bundle.

• perlDoc: a perl documentation viewer.

• Regex Coach is a graphical application for Windows which can be used to interactively experiment with (Perl-compatible) regular expressions. There are reliable reports of it running successfully under Linux using Wine and older, native, releases are also available for Linux and BSD as well. RegexCoachInstallHints Installation Hints